The Art of the Possible

The Art of the Possible showcases how a collaborative team in Seattle worked to promote significant changes in the Federal Aviation Administration's funding bill that will benefit everyone affected by aviation noise. This episode delves into the 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act and its implications for aviation noise management and air safety. It covers the near-collision event at Reagan National Airport that spurred legislative action, explores the provisions of the bill aimed at reducing noise and increasing safety, and highlights community efforts in Seattle to influence federal policy. It also discusses the challenges and successes of engaging stakeholders including airlines, local governments, and residents. The episode wraps up with recent legislative updates and their potential impact on noise abatement and aviation technology advancements.

Noisy Skies is a periodic podcast. Subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app to be alerted about our newest episodes. Got questions or comments? Drop us a line at info@noisyskies.org. We'd love to hear your feedback.

This episode was written and edited by Carolyn McCulley. 
Music by Cast of Characters, Moments, and Sounds like Sander.

Noisy Skies was selected by Feedspot as one of the Top 100 Aviation Podcasts on the web.

Noisy Skies is brought to you by The Aloft Group. The Aloft Group draws on decades of aviation experience to help communities navigate the complexity of aviation noise. To learn more about how Aloft can help your community, visit TheAloftGroup.com and read The Forgotten People in Aviation's Matrix.

Noisy Skies is a production of Citygate Films
© 2024 Citygate Films LLC

Transcript

Episode 6: Seattle and the Art of the Possible

[00:00:00] Carolyn McCulley: In April 2024, as the Federal Aviation Administration's periodic funding bill was making its way through Congress, two jets nearly collided at Washington Reagan National Airport, an event that accelerated the tension around the much-delayed bill. 

[00:00:22] News Anchor: We're following up on yesterday's close call at Reagan National Airport where two planes nearly collided.

[00:00:26] The FAA says a Southwest Airlines plane was cleared into the path of a JetBlue plane starting its takeoff roll. Air traffic controllers caught that mistake seconds, just seconds, before disaster. Our Matt Gregory is live at Gravelly Point. Matt, what's the latest tonight from the FAA? What are they telling us?

[00:00:43] Matt Gregory (News Reporter): Yeah, well, we know from speaking with the FAA that they're going to be going into their investigation. And from experts we talked to, they'll be looking at that conflicting information between a taxiing and a takeoff that almost led to a catastrophe. At the same time, we talked to Virginia lawmakers who say yesterday's near disaster, that near miss, is more evidence that Reagan cannot support more flights Tonight, new fallout from that frantic audio. 

[00:01:10] ATC: STOP Southwest 2937 STOP 

[00:01:11] Matt Gregory (News Reporter): Air traffic controllers watching what played out on one of Reagan's runways Thursday. 

[00:01:17] ATC: Air traffic crosstalk 

[00:01:18] Matt Gregory (News Reporter): A Southwest flight cleared to taxi across a runway that a Jet Blue flight had started its takeoff from. 

[00:01:24] Pilot: We stopped. We were cleared to cross runway four. 

[00:01:26] Matt Gregory (News Reporter): Virginia Senator Tim Kaine says members of Congress have advocated for adding more flights to Reagan when the FAA bill goes up for reauthorization this May. 

[00:01:37] Sen. Tim Kaine: The problem with this is that the main runway at DCA is the busiest runway in the United States. Yesterday demonstrated that there's already a significant problem with congestion and delay, and that then verges into potential problems with safety.

[00:01:53] Matt Gregory (News Reporter): A reauthorization with the potential to have a big impact at DCA Reagan, while the FAA investigates the latest near miss.

[00:02:04] Carolyn McCulley: In theory, every five years, the Federal Aviation Administration's Reauthorization Act is updated and Congress passes the agency's funding. I say "in theory," because short-term funding for the FAA was extended four times as voting on what would have been the 2023 FAA Reauthorization Act then rolled over to 2024.

[00:02:27] By May, the bill was stalled in the Senate, as lawmakers tried to attach numerous, and mostly unrelated, amendments to it. The near miss at Reagan National Airport only added to this tension, as the Senators from Virginia and Maryland added one more: an amendment to strip the bill's provision to add ten more flights in and out of Reagan National Airport, usually referred to as DCA. 

[00:02:52] The FAA Reauthorization Act also contained a number of key provisions about aviation noise, an under-reported part of a bill that is more than 1, 000 pages long, and also something that a group at Seattle's airport have been advocating for, for over the past year.

[00:03:14] I'm Carolyn McCulley and this is the Noisy Skies podcast, brought to you by The Aloft Group. This episode is titled, "The Art of the Possible," a phrase I first heard at the Aviation Noise and Emissions Symposium in March when that same team from Seattle gave a presentation. We will hear more from them shortly, but first we will go back to the summer of 2023. That's when Representative Ayanna Pressley addressed the House about what she hears from her constituents who live near Boston Logan International Airport. 

[00:03:47] Rep. Ayanna Pressley: As a proud member of the Congressional Quiet Skies Caucus, I want to talk about what these constituents are experiencing -- loud air traffic starting in the early morning hours and lasting until midnight; adverse health effects exacerbated by interrupted sleep; aircraft noise; air pollution -- it's all taking a toll. That's why I support provisions in the FAA bill that invest in noise abatement, clean energy, and most importantly, community input. It is through cooperative governance and listening to impacted communities, who are often the most underserved and overlooked, that we can advance policies that are responsive to their needs.

[00:04:20] Carolyn McCulley: Noise was rarely, if ever, mentioned in any reporting about the FAA's 105 billion dollar bill. But early in May, as the clock ran out for the Senate to pass the bill, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine rose to address the issue of additional flights at DCA. 

[00:04:38] Sen. Tim Kaine: Because as a general matter, this is a necessary bill with a lot of good provisions in it. In particular, the work on air traffic control recruitment and training and pilot training hours. I feel very, very good about that work that's been done. But the gist of this bill is to promote air safety. And there is one provision in the bill that is dramatically contrary to the thrust of this bill. It will not increase air safety. It will reduce air safety and it will reduce air safety in the capital of the United States at Reagan National Airport, otherwise known as DCA. 

[00:05:14] When we've had a near collision that's a flashing red warning signal right in our face before this vote, when the FAA is saying you can't even put one flight in without increasing what is already unacceptable delay, and when the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority that we created and that we appoint their board says don't do this, why would we do this? Why would we do this? 

[00:05:35] The Senators from the region who have the most at stake stand uniform -- Senators Cardin, Van Hollen, Warner and I -- opposed to the slot increase that is in the Senate bill that's pending before us. And we have an amendment that would strip those five slots, ten flights out, so that we don't make this worse.

[00:05:54] Carolyn McCulley: But in the end, Senator Kaine and his three other colleagues from Maryland and Virginia were unsuccessful. The 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act was passed by the Senate 88 to 4. These four senators were the nays. And then President Biden signed it into law in mid May. Throughout this protracted legislative process, a small group in Seattle was paying attention to the details of this 1,000-plus page bill.

[00:06:22] It was the Federal Policy Working Group that is part of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Stakeholder Advisory Roundtable, otherwise known as START. In the spring of 2023, this Federal Policy Working Group made a trip to Washington, D. C. to present their priorities for the FAA Reauthorization Act.

[00:06:42] Here is Eric Schinfeld with the backstory. 

[00:06:44] Eric Schinfeld: My name is Eric Schinfeld. I'm the Senior Manager of Federal Government Relations for the Port of Seattle, so I do all of our D. C. work, engaging with members of Congress and federal agencies on behalf of the Port. I started at the port about seven and a half years ago.

[00:06:58] Before that, I knew almost nothing about aviation whatsoever. I'm a federal policy guy, and so one of the things you learn when you work for members of Congress like I have, is how to learn new things really quickly. 

[00:07:11] Carolyn McCulley: Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, often called SEA, is the 11th busiest airport in the nation. It is also a top 20 cargo airport. But unlike many airports, it's actually part of a maritime port, and one with directly-elected commissioners. 

[00:07:29] Eric Schinfeld: The Port of Seattle, we are a special purpose government created by the state of Washington to manage the public benefits of the port district here in King County, Washington. For those of you who are not from here, King County, Washington is Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, those areas, including, of course, all of the communities around the city of Seattle. The airport itself is about 15 miles south of downtown Seattle, just over the border into the city of SeaTac, whereas our maritime facilities are all in downtown Seattle for the most part.

[00:08:01] We're pretty unique as a port authority in two ways. One, we're one of the only port authorities in the country that has directly-elected officials. Most other port authorities have appointed officials or they're run by another government. Whereas we have the voters of King County, Washington actually vote to elect all five of our Port of Seattle commissioners to govern the Port of Seattle.

[00:08:23] The other way that we're unique is we actually are one of the only port authorities in the country. There's only about a half a dozen of them that have both airport and seaport. So it's an interesting structure. Obviously people know about the Port of New York/New Jersey is one example of that. Port of Oakland is another example of that.

[00:08:38] And so it really creates a lot of interesting opportunities for us, for our commissioners, to make sure that all of the operations of the Port of Seattle -- aviation and maritime -- are providing that public benefit back to the community. 

[00:08:54] Carolyn McCulley: The Airport Stakeholder Group, START, is the way the group stays connected to the community on many issues. Then there are subgroups on noise and federal policy. SEA's Marco Milanese explains more. 

[00:09:07] Marco Milanese: My name is Marco Milanese. I'm the Community Engagement Manager at SEA Airports. So, a good chunk of what I do is helping manage our airport roundtable, the SEA Stakeholder Advisory Roundtable, and then also the working group from START, the Aviation Noise Working Group.

[00:09:24] The larger roundtable has the ability to tackle and discuss any issue that has an airport connection with the community. So we have talked about other issues besides just noise. But when START first formed, we asked them what would be their number one priority if they were to dedicate their energies, and they said noise. And so then that's why we spun off that separate working group just to focus on the type of initiatives that we could work the noise team on to tackle noise.

[00:09:51] But the larger group has brought in speakers on a variety of topics that have an aviation connection to the community. 

[00:09:58] Carolyn McCulley: START was established in 2018 and is chaired by the airport manager. Each of the six cities surrounding the airport appoints two community representatives and one city employee to participate in the roundtable. Alaska Airlines, Delta Airlines, and the FAA all play key roles in START as well. While the airport manager is the chair of the roundtable, the meetings are facilitated by a consultant to encourage even handed discussions. Marco Milanese explains more. 

[00:10:28] Marco Milanese: I can't think of a better way to be clear to the community that we are taking these issues seriously by putting the number one official at the airport at that table involved, listening, and engaging.

[00:10:39] And so with our airport director, Lance Lyttle, there at the table, it's obvious to everyone present that this is a serious effort. And I know other roundtables have appointed heads or a business rep or someone else, but I think it's really worked well to have our airport director there showcasing how important he takes being part of this.

[00:11:00] Carolyn McCulley: START's working groups have enabled conversations that identify specific goals and solutions. In the Federal Policy Working Group, Eric says that actually one of their best ideas came from the community, not the airport. 

[00:11:13] Eric Schinfeld: First of all, credit where credit's due. It was actually a community member who first said, Hey, what are we doing about the FAA? What are we doing about federal law that actually controls so much of what we care about here? And of course, that's such a smart and obvious point. So I just want to give credit to her, to Sheila Brush, who runs our local Quiet Skies group. It used to be that we would say something like, we don't have control over this. That's a federal issue. You should go talk to the FAA. You should go talk to Congress and get that changed. And obviously that's frustrating. That sounds like a rebuff and a brush off. And so changing that to a, "Hey, let's come together and jointly go to the FAA, jointly go to Congress, and try and change some of these policies" is obviously just number one, a nicer thing to say, and a more collaborative thing to say, but also we have found it to be incredibly effective.

[00:12:07] Carolyn McCulley: The Federal Policy Working Group has addressed several issues over the years, including the FAA's Noise Policy Review effort, which was featured in Episode 4 of this podcast. But it was the current FAA Reauthorization Act that offered more opportunity to this group to have impact. So, they sat down and made a list of seven priorities they wanted to see in this bill.

[00:12:30] Eric Schinfeld: So we identified, let me be honest, more than seven. And we said to ourselves, the worst thing you can do to an elected official is give them a list of 20 things to do. The old saying about if you have 20 priorities, you have no priorities. And so we really worked very hard to be able to say, here are the things we think are possible, are tangible, will be impactful, we think can be done without too much controversy in the FAA reauthorization bill.

[00:13:03] Carolyn McCulley: Seven things this group identified included: 1) Federal funding to replace failed noise insulation packages for homes that had been previously insulated in years past. 2) Legislation empowering the EPA to play a productive role in addressing community concerns about aircraft noise and emissions. 3) Imposing a deadline for action on the FAA Neighborhood Environmental Survey. 4) Expanding sustainable aviation fuel incentives and investments. 5) Renewing the FAA Environmental Mitigation Pilot Program as a permanent authorization. 6) Passing legislation to bring more federal attention and engagement on ultrafine particulates from aircraft engines. And 7) Establishing policies clarifying the process for FAA regulatory review and agency collaboration for new regional airport capacity. Then, in the spring of 2023, the first ever START DC fly in occurred. A delegation of 20 local and state elected officials and staff from the Port of Seattle went to the nation's capital to advocate for the inclusion of mutually agreed upon aircraft noise and emissions reduction policies in the bill.

[00:14:19] Eric Schinfeld: We have many years of experience with our congressional elected officials seeing us fight with the community. Seeing the community sue us. Seeing us ignore the community. Real enmity being created between the port and the community. And so when we flew to Washington D. C. last year, shoulder to shoulder with the community, speaking from the same songbook, using the same talking points to say we have areas of agreement, we jointly support these things, we want to work together with you to do that -- just the sight of that alone, forget about the content, really was impactful. And the proof is in the pudding in terms of the progress we've been able to make with getting some of those policies into this year's FAA reauthorization bill.

[00:15:01] Carolyn McCulley: Four of the group's seven priorities were eventually included in the final FAA bill, including policies to study ultrafine particulates from aircraft engines; a one year deadline for FAA action on potential changes to current federal aviation noise policy, including noise metrics for residential sound insulation and the creation of a stakeholder advisory panel to include area residents; a regional airport capacity program; and the renewal of an environmental mitigation pilot program that provides grants to support new technologies and approaches to reducing aircraft noise and emissions. 

[00:15:40] Eric Schinfeld: First and foremost, I think those who listen to this podcast will appreciate is that we focused on the 65 DNL noise contour. That's one of the things that we hear the most concerns about is, "Hey, I'm outside the 65 DNL contour. I still hear noise. What are you going to do for me?" And our answer unfortunately has to be, "We're not allowed to use federal funds to do noise insulation in your home if it's outside the 65 DNL." And so we know that the FAA is in a process right now, but that process, number one is in a black box. And number two is technically open ended. So one of our priorities that we were successful getting at the FAA bill was creating a stakeholder advisory group that can advise the FAA and that has, at our proposal, airlines, airports, community representatives, other federal agencies, airplane manufacturers that are going to be able to advise on the technical level.

[00:16:34] So the FAA is actually getting all of the input directly that they need to make this decision. And then we also put in a one year deadline for a decision. And nothing creates action like a deadline, as we all know. We felt that was really important. I think the FAA maybe doesn't fully appreciate that we're tying their hands a little bit there, but this is a topic that of course people have been discussing for decades. And so we really thought it was important for them to get to a point where they're coming with a set of recommendations. Even if those recommendations may not be exactly what everyone wants them to be, we need to have a sense of progress and a sense of timing here.

[00:17:14] Carolyn McCulley: Since 1985, the Seattle airport has sound insulated more than 9, 400 structures, mostly single family homes, but also some condo buildings, schools, and places of worship. Some of the earlier work is no longer effectively insulating these homes. So the Federal Policy Working Group lobbied to get repair work covered in this year's FAA bill.

[00:17:37] Eric Schinfeld: This insulation is not going to live forever, right? So we want to be able to go in, analyze whether or not that noise protection is still being received by the home. And if not, what can we do to address that using federal funds and of course the port match? You can use FAA dollars to fund noise insulation in homes and buildings around the airport as long as they're within the 65 DNL. That's an 80 percent grant that we match with 20 percent of our funds. And based on, for example, the FAA's noise annoyance survey that they did a couple of years ago, it is very clear that people outside the 65 DNL have many concerns about aircraft noise. And so that is what the FAA obviously is doing as part of their noise policy review -- looking at that, trying to figure out what that means, what if anything they should do? So I want to say this is really about money, right? And I'm not saying that in a negative way or a positive way. The FAA spends tens of millions of dollars a year on noise insulation grants. If they expand the 65 DNL, that will cost additional money because there will be additional homes and buildings eligible for noise insulation grants. And there's not infinite federal dollars, although sometimes our members of Congress act like there are. Everything in the federal budget is about resources and priorities. 

[00:18:51] News Anchor: President Biden signed the FAA Reauthorization Act, giving benefits to both passengers and airports. Michael Anthony has reaction.

[00:18:58] Carolyn McCulley: Unfortunately, that was not one of the priorities that made it into the final FAA bill. But there were other wins. General Aviation, for example, got its first ever title in the bill, a section dedicated entirely to programs and policies that directly affect General Aviation aircraft owners and pilots.

[00:19:18] Airline passengers also received several huge wins. For the first time, passengers will have the right to a hassle-free refund if a flight is canceled or delayed three hours domestically and if an international flight is delayed six hours. The bill also prohibits airlines from charging fees for families to sit together and requires airlines to provide free 24/7 access to customer service agents by phone, live chat, or text message.

[00:19:45] The bill strengthens protections and accessibility for passengers with disabilities, as well. And passengers at DCA will no doubt appreciate the funding to reduce runway close calls. This bill requires the FAA to deploy the latest airport surface situational awareness technologies that track runway aircraft and vehicle movements to prevent collisions.

[00:20:20] But listeners of this podcast will no doubt be most interested in the sections about noise. For example, when clarifying existing and future noise policies and standards, the FAA is required to seek feedback from airports, airport users, and individuals living in the vicinity of airports. Yay! More specifically, Section 787 of the Act reads:

[00:20:50] "In implementing or substantially revising a flight procedure, the administrator shall consider the following actions, (to the extent that such actions do not negatively affect aviation safety or efficiency ) to reduce undesirable aircraft noise. One, implement flight procedures that can mitigate the impact of aircraft noise based on consensus community recommendation. Two, work with airport sponsors and potentially impacted neighboring communities in establishing or modifying aircraft arrival and departure routes. Three, in collaboration with local governments, discourage local encroachment of residential or other buildings near airports that could create future aircraft noise complaints or impact airport operations or aviation safety."

[00:21:41] Then, in Section 792, the bill also requires the FAA to establish an Aircraft Noise Advisory Committee to advise the FAA on issues facing the aviation community that are related to aircraft noise exposure and existing FAA noise policies and regulations. Following that, Section 793 requires the FAA to establish a community collaboration program to harmonize policies and procedures across the agency related to community engagement.

[00:22:10] This program will focus on engagement efforts related to air traffic procedure changes, coordinating with the regional ombudsman, increasing the responsiveness of the FAA's noise complaint process, and implementing GAO recommendations related to improving outreach on noise. This was something that we explored in Episode 4.

[00:22:30] And, in what may be the first opportunity for all parties to embrace this new congressional direction, just a few weeks ago, local government in Loudoun County, Virginia, voted to begin a community review of the flight paths from one runway at Dulles Airport. Hopefully, all parties will see this as an opportunity to address a noise issue and create an outcome where everyone is a winner. Even the communities near an airport.

[00:22:58] But going back to our story in Seattle, the airport's noise manager tried to score wins by working directly with the airlines. 

[00:23:06] Tom Fagerstrom: My name is Tom Fagerstrom. I am a noise program manager at SEA Airport. I've been at Port of Seattle for 16 years and with noise for the last 14 or so. I have worked at airports the majority of my adult life. I've been working at airports for most of the last 35 years. 

[00:23:28] We have two airline incentive programs, one of them is Fly Quiet, where we recognize the airline that has operated the quietest, flew the flight procedures the most accurately, and limited late night noise. So we give them a public pat on the back, a public award, a luncheon, where they come in and our executives and our commissioners give them a personal congratulation. That's what we can do for the airlines that are doing the best. 

[00:23:53] But we also have the other end of things, which is our late-night noise limitation program, where we highlight the airlines that maybe are the noisiest, particularly between midnight and five. We really concentrate on those aircraft that are waking folks up. Then we reach out to them and ask if there's any sort of a change that they could possibly make, a fleet change, or a schedule change. And that's our ask on a regular basis that we reach out to those carriers. So we have these two bookend airline incentive programs.

[00:24:16] Carolyn McCulley: One of the airlines that frequently flies to Seattle is EVA Air, a Taiwanese international airline. 

[00:24:23] Tom Fagerstrom: From a noise office perspective, you could not ask for a better interaction with an airline than we had with EVA regarding our program. Our late night noise limitation program started in the fall of 2019, and EVA flew a Boeing 777 aircraft, which was exceeding our noise thresholds, had the most noise exceedances. They have a 1 a. m. departure to Taipei and they engaged with our program right away from the very first quarter that we reached out to them. Initially, their ask was how can we make our triple seven departures less noisy? 

[00:24:56] So in March of 2020, just as we were right on the edge of the world, shutting down with COVID, we had a big meeting with a bunch of folks from EVA. The Boeing company was there with their noise engineers in the same room. We knew they had the Boeing 787 entering their fleet, and we started to ask, is there a possibility of bringing this aircraft in? And I know that they were not planning on bringing it into Seattle, at least not in that timeframe. But they did, and they brought it in ahead of schedule. But our program and our outreach to them convinced them to bring it into Seattle. And it's a slightly smaller aircraft than the 777. So they made some sacrifices with that aircraft, bringing it in well ahead of schedule. And it's a significantly quieter aircraft. And so that's the dream scenario from a noise program standpoint, to have that interaction with an airline.

[00:25:45] So if we have an airport filled with these types of aircraft, these new or modern type of aircraft, noise goes down considerably. And so what we try to do is encourage these airlines to fly their most modern fleets here. And we're recognizing Delta Airlines with the Fly Quiet Award this year for the work that they're trying to do to bring in their modern aircraft here, and they've done quite well with that.

[00:26:09] Carolyn McCulley: Marco Milanese wanted to acknowledge the improvements with cargo flights as well. 

[00:26:14] Marco Milanese: We've had other examples of fleet changes that airlines have made that have had an impact on noise. And a recent example is once EVA dropped from the top position as the loudest late-night aircraft, FedEx soon took it over and they have a lot of really old aircraft that fly to SEA. But they've made a bunch of changes recently too when it comes to what they fly and they've dropped down in the standings, which is wonderful.

[00:26:40] Carolyn McCulley: Still, Marco does have something more on his wish list. 

[00:26:44] Marco Milanese: The FAA, in a sense, has a role on our roundtable, not an official role, but I'd like to see a more active role. Particularly someone from air traffic control, you know, being part of the conversations and the discussions and helping explain things. We don't have someone there with that kind of expertise, and I think it would really help in terms of the education of our membership. If people have questions about why this flight at this hour over this area, it'd be nice to call on the FAA to help with that explanation. And we're lacking that right now, but I would love to see that. 

[00:27:19] Carolyn McCulley: Jeff Harbaugh, a community member of START, agrees. 

[00:27:23] Jeff Harbaugh: My perception, what I have experienced, is that the FAA representative on the START committee says little to nothing.

[00:27:31] And the port will say, but they're very cooperative when it's not a public meeting kind of thing. And I believe those guys, but I don't know if it's true or not.

[00:27:44] When you first walk into this airport space, you are drinking out of a firehose. And it's intimidating, and it's complicated. I think if there was a manual on this it'd be great, but it doesn't exist and I don't know who's going to write it. 

[00:27:58] Here's the other thing, for people who are going to get involved, do not get involved and just sit there. You have to make enough commitment to read enough information to get some feel for what's going on, and know what the issues are, to get some instinct so that you can contribute and participate. Because if we don't have a good exchange of information, we won't accomplish anything. So that's really important.

[00:28:24] I think I was more optimistic when I signed on about what could be accomplished. I think port people are all of goodwill. And we've had some small successes. But we had a noise working group a couple of weeks ago, and we got told that there's going to be, on average, about two more night flights now. That's just the way it is.

[00:28:45] I'm not angry at anybody, but anybody who works in this space understands that's how things are going to happen. 

[00:28:53] Carolyn McCulley: And Eric Schinfeld understands that reaction. 

[00:28:56] Eric Schinfeld: We haven't fixed all the problems, but we're not some sort of magical gurus. But we're at the table. We're actively listening. We're collaborating. And I think also, not only are we making progress, but people are starting to understand even more why the progress is so challenging. And understanding where the true structural barriers are. We don't actually, as the airport, have a ton of control over these issues. Most of these are FAA issues and airline issues. And that can be very frustrating for people when we just say, sorry, it's not us. And so instead we've really changed that conversation from sorry it's not us to what can we do together to try and work on these issues.

[00:29:35] Carolyn McCulley: It's the art of the possible. The 2024

[00:29:43] FAA Reauthorization Act is poised to be a big win for communities as it opens a new door for true collaboration. And the timing of this couldn't be better, as a new and quieter era in aviation is racing to take off with urban air mobility and electric aviation. That's the topic of our next episode.

[00:30:07] In other news, just as this episode was getting ready to drop, we learned of two updates. In the previous episode, we looked at aviation noise and developing solutions at Centennial Airport, south of Denver, Colorado. On the same day that President Biden signed the FAA Reauthorization Act, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed a new bill earmarking 1.5 million dollars annually from the state aviation fund to transition airports to unleaded aviation gas. The bill also requires airports accepting this grant money to collaborate with pilots to minimize noise from flights. Additionally, the bill expands the state's aeronautical board by adding two community members from areas impacted by general aviation traffic, giving them a voice in where the state aviation grant money goes.

[00:30:54] Finally, on May 29th, less than two weeks after President Biden signed the FAA bill, an American Airlines flight bound for Boston from Reagan National Airport had to abort its takeoff to avoid colliding with another plane, a smaller twin engine King Air. The two flights were estimated to be only 1,300 feet apart as the American Airlines jet prepared for takeoff.

[00:31:20] Noisy Skies is brought to you by The Aloft Group. Aloft draws on decades of aviation experience to help communities navigate the complexity of aviation noise. And when it comes to roundtables, though the FAA views them as experienced advisory groups, there is no in-depth course that prepares volunteer roundtable members for all they need to know to be successful.

[00:31:41] This is where Aloft can help participants better understand the technical, operational, and political factors that are involved, so that trust can be built faster. And with trust, come solutions. To learn about how The Aloft Group can help your community, visit noisyskies.org. 

[00:31:59] This episode was written and edited by me, Carolyn McCulley.

[00:32:03] Do you have any questions or comments for the show? We'd love to hear from you. Drop us a line at info@noisyskies.org. And then join me next time, wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening.